Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Over Does It: Al Qaeda in New England has accepted responsibility for the bombing in Boston, claiming they had targeted two high-ranking US military officials and that the collateral deaths and injuries to civilians were unfortunate. The families of the deceased will be given 12,000 dinars as an expression of condolence. Meanwhile, Homeland Security is determining which of our few remaining shreds of privacy we will now have to surrender.

Over Various Dead Bodies: Now that Mubarak is no longer president, a court has ruled that he is no longer responsible for the protesters his government killed trying to keep him in power. No gain, no pain.

Behavioral Imprinting: What if, just maybe, the increase in bulling in schools simply reflects the increase in bullying seen at home. And in politics. And from our pulpits.

Calvinball: Republicans in Wisconsin – having had two courts rule their voter suppression efforts to be unconstitutional and the state supreme court refuse to intercede – plan to change the rules so that any state law invalidated by a circuit court would be automatically reinstated until an appeal works its way through the courts. Translation: We'll pass unconstitutional voter suppression bills, let the lower courts overturn them, appeal so we can enforce them during the election period and then drop the appeals.

Old Whine, Old Men: Pope Francis has confirmed Benedict XVI's censure of the largest group of nuns in the US for holding “radical feminist” rules. Progress isn't too progressive around St Peter's.

Cover Story: The reason(sic) that Obama wants to sell off TVA is not to remove the last vestiges of FDR (having already thrown Social Security in the dumpster), but because the bonds TVA issues for capital investment projects are counted as part of the national debt and this is a way to lower the national debt by a few billion dollars while rewarding Wall Street.

Recess: A new study reports that 'school reform' – specifically market-oriented education reform - doesn't improve test scores and that school closures neither saved money nor resulted in students being reassigned to better schools. What it does accomplish is to harm students, especially underprivileged students.

Bad News: Most people are unable to discriminate between 'news' and things that are actually relevant to their lives. Much 'news' is trivia that barely impacts our lives – the object is to distract and entertain, not to inform. That's why reading this blog daily is good for your mental health; we put 'news' in its place.

Straight Face And All: GOP Representative Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, who believes liberals will use information gained during gun purchase background checks to slaughter gun owners, says that “Preying on the fears of the American citizenry is not good governance.”

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.